History of Henley-in-Arden Bowls Club
HENLEY-in-ARDEN BOWLS CLUB (WHITE SWAN BOWLING CLUB)
1885 - Present
The written history of the “Henley-in-Arden Bowls Club” and its predecessor the “White Swan Bowling Club” is in one cardboard box! There is a newspaper article from 1955 reporting on the centenary dinner of the White Swan Bowling Club celebrating the club’s formation in 1855.
The earliest record is in the White Swan Bowling Club Committee’s Minute Book, which covers committee meetings from 15th March 1934 to 4th October 1957. Inspection of the minutes from the first recorded meeting indicate that not a lot seems to have been discussed!
There is a Petty Cash Book covering late 1949 to 1963 which also includes details of team and social events. In 1950 the fixture list is for 10 matches, the club income was, in Old Money, £84/18/03p, expenditure was £63/11/01p and the cost of the rather grand annual dinner was 7/6p.
The White Swan Bowling Club bowled on the green behind the White Swan Hotel on the High Street in Henley-in-Arden and in November 1960 permission was sought from Ansells Brewery Limited for the building of a new pavilion. Even in those day funds were tight, the £378 estimate was considered unaffordable by the secretary who thought that the club could reduce the cost to £170 on a self-help basis. In the event, Ansells Brewery proposed that they would stand the £400 cost of the build and then lease the pavilion to the club at an annual rental of 10% of the cost. After dozens of letters which saw the cost rise to £554/12/0p but kept the rent at £40 pa the agreement was signed on 14th June 1962.
In 1986 Ansells Brewery sold the lease to the White Swan Landlord, a Mr Roger Lawn, who couldn’t afford to allow the present lease of £40pa to continue. The club, therefore, had to find the money to acquire new premises. It was estimated that £20,000 would be needed to build a first class bowling green at the proposed new site at the Henley Sports and Social Club. The actual cost of the green became £10,093 with another £2,910 for equipment.
The first General Meeting of the newly renamed Henley-in-Arden Bowls Club took place in the Scout Hut at the Henley-in-Arden Sports Field on 23rd March 1987. The new green was available for play on May 1st 1988 and opened officially on 18th June 1988 with a match commencing at dawn! The next hurdle was financing the building of a new pavilion at an initial estimated cost of £8,000 which would be met from grants, interest-free loans from members and a very generous donation, which unfortunately later became a legacy, of £7,500 from the Club President, Mr John Shennan. By November 1989 the estimated building cost for a brick-built pavilion had increased to £20,000. The pavilion was opened on 31st March 1992.
Bowling at the new green has continued uninterrupted since then.